New American Duchess Shoes Ordered!

     Recent news: I ordered my own pair of American Duchess "Hartfield" Regency boots!!!! So cute!
I got the brown leather pair. (The ivory ones are dyeable, by the way). Part of the Pre-order (reduced price of $148 instead of $168). They should arrive in November-ish. Yay! I'll be able to wear them for at least a portion of Dickens Fair.
     As well as wearing them for Regency costume, I can imagine the style working for plenty of other eras...later Victorian, Edwardian, some places in the 20th century...not to mention for contemporary wear! Really excited Own your pair today at American Duchess.

Now for the pretty...

Hartfield promo banner copyright American Duchess

Hartfields in brown leather copyright American Duchess

     I loved Am-Duch's photo shoot for the boots. Very classy and well-styled. Really reminds me of an Austen heroine (Lizzie Bennet for sure). 

That's all for now, folks!

A Single Pocket

     I decided I needed at least one pocket for my Dicken's Fair dress this year. I was tired of having to shove everything in my silly little reticule. This was my first go at pockets and it was an interesting experience. I basically just fudged the whole thing. I'd seen 18th century pockets and then listened to my friend describing her pocket method. I just made it up from there. There's probably an easier way to do it/ more effective.

     The pocket shape. I had some fun red-polka-dotty printed cotton left over from another project. I freely cut this shape (2 of them) and sewed them together on the outside and cutting a slit about halfway down the middle of one of the two pocket panels. Then, I stitched the slits into the right side seam of my skirt, which I had hacked open for a couple of inches at pocket-height.
     The result was an almost-invisible pocket in the right side seam of my red Dickens skirt. It is fairly deep, so I've found I can store quite a bit in there comfortably, like pencils and cell phones. I found this out while sketching at PEERS Pre-Raphaelite Picnic in Alameda a couple weekends ago. I also got to model for the sketching!
     I was playing the part of Effie Ruskin (as asked by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who was running the sketching and is part of Dickens Fair) a muse of the PRB painter John Everett Millais. She was married to the Victorian art critic John Ruskin when she was 19 years old and he was far older. This was later annulled, because their marriage had never been consummated and she went on to marry Millais, after modelling for him for several years.

Effie Gray
painted by Thomas Richmond

     There actually will be a movie coming out about her, which I am quite excited for! Starring Dakota Fanning.

Screenshot from Effie. Scheduled for release in October of 2013.

1827-29 Dress

     Here's an introduction to a project that I have no particular deadline for. It's mostly just musing about a historical dress that has caught my interest. Not quite sure what the final outcome will be, but, without further ado...
     When looking at Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 1: 1660-1860, you will find the 1827-9 Gloucester Museum wedding dress. Before I had ever laid my eyes on the book, I had had the fantasy of Marie sleeves on a Romantic Era dress swimming around in my mind. Then I saw this dress and was like...DAMN. That is one fine lady. I knew we would have to become friends.

My baby.

     My dad, the fabulous father he is, offered to enlarge pattern page to full scale for me on construction plans-sized paper. Awesome. Now, this was a while back, but I am now finally getting to cutting out the pattern pieces with the added 5/8'' seam allowance.

The pattern, with my little pin cushion.

     I'm not going to bother messing around with the neck yoke and ruffles and skirt gather-decoration-things for now, but I will be using the bodice and sleeve patterns for certain. I hope to fiddle around with them enough to make them normal-people-sized. I've estimated that the sleeves will fit at least my lower arms pretty well. I'm fairly petite, but the bodice will still need some adjusting, seeing as my rib cage is not nearly as tiny as the lucky bride for whom the original dress was made. 

    There is a dress from the BBC series Wives & Daughters that I have lusted over since I first saw the series several years ago. It's the purple tartan one that Molly Gibson wears to dinner. I have heard several negative opinions of the gown, but I BLOODY LOVE IT! The bright tartan, the colors, the cut, the sleeves, the piping, all of it. That being said, the structure of the dress it quite similar to the Gloucester one. Mainly just minus the extra froof (collar, sleeve, and skirt adornments). 

     By the way, in case you haven't guessed, I ADORE the Romantic Era. Yes, the sleeves are huge, the hair is poufy and often resembles bunny ears, and the froof can be crazy...but I love it.

     Keeping that all in mind, I continue on my little project....

Petti Project

     What Little Moth has been working on...
   
1830's/40's Skirt Supports: I decided to ditch the idea of sporting hoops to Dickens Fair this year. Tried it out a couple weekends last season. Hated it. Fezzi's (the dancing guild I'm part of at Fair) backstage is too small and there are already too many goddamn hoops swinging about and crowding the space. So....PETTICOATS!
     Not the tulle-net-synthetic cr@p I wore my first season. It got weighed down by my skirts. And then last season I threw together my first corded petticoat (wow, I didn't know what I was doing when I started that). Problem was, I didn't put nearly enough rows on cording in it and didn't starch it, lacking knowledge of how. My skirts still looked saggy. As you can see...My Dickens Dress. Fail. But, you can see that the hips look a little fuller, which is because I padded the cartridge pleats a little bit to help with the bell-shape of the skirt on top of petticoats and avoid getting the dreaded cone-shaped silhouette. For example:

No.

(aliexpress.com)

Yes.

(Ballgown, ca 1855 France, KCI)

          See the difference of the bell? Well, that's what I'm going for with the petticoats I'm working on combined with my padded pleats. The plan:

-my (now-re-vamped and starched) corded petticoat

                 -made from stiff muslin and thick cotton cording

                         worn under

-ruffled AND corded petticoat (in progress) 

                -ruffles with several cords underneath them

                -made from minty-green King-sized bed sheet my momma gave me

                -100% Egyptian cotton

-both petticoats will have the living daylights starched out of them

     The final decision to go petti came from inspiration from a lovely post by the lady behind Frolicking Frocks. She shows the wonders of multiple layers and starching. I tried the bum-pad idea that she had, but the shape I created didn't quite work for me, so I think I'll try one that is more like hers. 

     Oh, and I think this chick is cute:

That's all for now, folks!

Dresses in Action

     Time to show the places my little dresses have been! Mostly Gaskell Balls. Mostly balls in general. No, not those balls. The dancing balls. (Of course, I hate my expression in all the photos. Meh.)
     First, my 1830's Periwinkle at the February Gaskell:

photo credit Sarah S.

     Then the Regency at PEERS Jane Austen Ball in Bath:

Beth and I
photo credit David B.

photo credit David B.

photo credit Ross B.

With Sarah again!
photo credit Sarah K.

The 1930's dress at March Gaskell:

My friend, Ben, and I dancing.
All photo credit Gaskell Ball.

Sir Roger de Coverly

Silliness during Sir Roger.

That's all for now! Will show more picture dresses in action as they come!

PROM!

     Yes, I disappeared for a bit, but I'm back! At least right now... Well, I finished all the pieces for my AP Studio Art Concentration. All packaged up and turned in. I get my score in July!
     Here's my Prom dress, which was inspired by a 1920's Lanvin "Pretty Woods" gown and constructed with mostly-historical techniques. It was a real hit. Prom sucked, of course. No surprises there, seeing as "dancing" at Prom most closely resembles intercourse on the dance floor. Ugh...grinding....just....NO. But the before part was great! Getting ready with my aunt Kit and Mom there, driving over with my dad and Amelia, meeting up with my group for pictures and looking fabulous, and laughing and smiling lots! That part was my favorite.
     Boyfriend wasn't in town, so I went with two of my very good friends as dates and I left the Prom a little early to go see the Bay Bridge lights down by the Ferry Building in San Francisco (location of Prom). So, here's the dress:
     Completely hand-stitched from turquoise silk dupioni. Self-drafted pattern (I used a t-shirt as shape base!). Closures of snaps and hooks and bars (historically-correct for 1920's dresses) on the right side placket. The skirt is simple: two panels (both a little under two yards) gathered onto the bodice while distributing most of the gathering at the side of the hips and opening at the right side. The under part is just several yards of stiff pink net, gathered into a waistband with most of gathers around the hip area for that Robe de Style shape-ish-ness. And the shoes? AMERICAN DUCHESS! I love them!!! Thank you, Am-Duch! They are the "23Skidoos". 1920's Spectator T-straps. LOVE.

 

     Yay. And the sketchcollagething I did for my AP portfolio:

      Mm. It's okay. Could have been better. I'll be at peace with it.

     Well, I kinda hated the waistline, so, the day of Prom, I tore out the stitching of the skirt and bodice and repositioned it higher up. Looked MUCH better. So, here's PROM!

Our whole group.
(Mama made my corsage!)

Bathroom pictures!

   

In the elevator!

Getting excited about holographic elevator wall!

My two dates and I. Amelia and Tam! Tam gettin' all the ladies...

I'm so fierce!

Oh, we are so fabulous...

     

     Thanks to all you lovely people who made Prom such a silly and fun night. You guys are the best!

My First 1930's Dress

     I finished my Moon Lady dress. Yay! I'll be wearing it to the Gaskell Ball this weekend in Oakland by Lake Merritt. More yays!
     I used Decades of Style's 1930's day dress as a base pattern. I altered the heck out of it. And roughly. I'm a rookie with alterations and in costuming in general. I made a mockup, literally just cut where I wanted the neckline changed (like the U-ish shape in the back), took it apart, and used it as the final pattern. For the skirt, I just eyeballed it it terms of alterations when I was cutting it out in the final fabric. I basically just extended the length on the skirt and made it grow wider at the hem (the pattern originally had the hem fall around mid-calf, but a bit longer on me, because I'ma shrimp). The fabric it a lovely silver cotton silk, 55% silk, 45% cotton. I think. Maybe it's the other way around. Anyhow, it has the brilliant sheen to it and it drapes really nicely.
     I faced the neckline with the dame fabric and hand finished the sleeves and hem as the pattern instructed. Not too bad for my first time with that. The whole dress is hand sewn. I think I was just worried my machine would muss up the fabric, but I actually don't think that would have been an issue. The cotton content makes it great to work with, not so slippery. I used an invisible zipper, which I do not believe is period correct, but it worked okay in terms of hand sewing it in and I've decided to stick to snaps and plackets in the future with Deco-era clothes. Or not-invisible zippers.
     The pictures really don't rock my world. I was having a bad hair and face day, so that didn't help. The pics really don't do the dress justice. Maybe I'll get better ones at Gaskell.

   
     For a basic 1930's evening gown, I think this is a win. Nothing fancy, just simple. And that's how I like it. I'm not big on embellishments or patterns or decorations, so this baby is my cuppa tea. I think I'll make a sash with a big droopy bow in the back for it, though. Just a touch of cutesy.
     And I'm out...